Polarization dynamics in a photon Bose-Einstein condensate

Ryan Moodie, Peter George Kirton, Jonathan Mark James Keeling

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

It has previously been shown that a dye-filled microcavity can produce a Bose-Einstein condensate of photons. Thermalization of photons is possible via repeated absorption and re-emission by the dye molecules. In this paper, we theoretically explore the behavior of the polarization of light in this system. We find that in contrast to the near complete thermalization between different spatial modes of light, thermalization of polarization states is expected to generally be incomplete. We show that the polarization degree changes significantly from below to above threshold, and explain the dependence of polarization on all relevant material parameters.
Original languageEnglish
Article number043844
Number of pages9
JournalPhysical Review. A, Atomic, molecular, and optical physics
Volume96
Issue number4
Early online date17 Oct 2017
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Oct 2017

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